Diane Mahana, marketing manager for Pro-Link, said: "This is a problem that our industry can help change.

"Not only is it a health issue; it''s an education issue. Illness negatively affects academic performance," continued Mahana, citing an American College Health Association study.

Some of the initiatives of the program include encouraging college administrators to make health a campus priority, placing hand sanitizer dispensers wherever there is student traffic — particularly outside of restroom doors and by shared computer keyboards, telephones and pencil sharpeners — and encouraging the installation and use of factory sealed soap dispensing systems instead of refillable soap dispensers, the release stated.

Pro-Link, founded in 1984, is a national full-service janitorial supply, marketing, and buying organization, the release added.